What symbols, icons or illustrations come to mind at an instance, and how are they used most times to replace words?Symbols that instantly come to my mind include but are not limited to: $ (US Dollar), % (Percentage), the cross (Christianity), the coat of arms (a group of people), symbols/signs on uniforms and the likes. These are characters that most times capture the concept or quantity of a conventional representation. An icon on the other hand, is a pictorial representation of a person, thing or idea that is widely understood. Examples include; the reload button on your browser, music player icons (like play, rewind, fast-forward and stop), twitter icon and the likes. Illustrations can be drawings, paintings, photography or any visual representation to help make something clear or attractive. Take for instance the Mona Lisa, The statue of David or other prominent photos. This post is going to discuss one popular symbol, icon and illustration, then examine how these aspects of imagery are used to replace words.
SYMBOLS
The Ampersand (&) symbol comes to mind as one that effectively replaces a word with an image. This commonly used symbol called the “and” sign is derived from the Latin word “et”. The shape of this symbol has evolved with time and also varies from font to font. If you take a close look at the symbol with a little bit of imagination, you can make out the letters e and t.
This symbol is used effectively and is well known to replace “and” especially in company business names, like firms and partnerships for law firms, architecture firms and/or stockbroker firms. This is because, when the ampersand forms part of a registered name, it is no longer replaced by the “and” word. Also, this symbol is used in other instances like; to replace the word “and” when space is limited (Like in a table, graph or title with very limited space). Other situations where this sign can be used, are in academic references (Authors: Altman, I., & Taylor, D,). However, the ampersand symbol is not commonly used in a business document, essay or term paper.
ICONS
Apple Inc. among other leading companies has one of the most eminent and trendy icons of all times. This widely accepted pictorial symbol represents the idea, concept or physical orientation of the company’s electronic and software products. The icon instantly communicates a message to customers and potential buyers which by itself markets their products. Like the iMac/Mac, iPhone and iTouch products, they use their own icons on the Apple website to better describe, familiarize and navigate through their products. Take for instance all the applications on the iPhone, they each have various icons on the Apple website that take you to an in-depth graphical explanation on what the application is about.
I believe anyone looking at the Apple icon; will automatically know what it stands for. This icon has provided the company by not necessarily communicating its message in words but by extensively enabling anyone to recognize the company’s icon. In addition to this, the Apple icon is distinguishable from any other company’s icon. Need to mention that the unique creation of their icon follows the pattern of their inimitable products.
ILLUSTRATION The statue of liberty, originally named “Liberty Enlightening the World” is one unique visual representation I feel falls under this category. This sculpture commemorates the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence. This gift of friendship was given to the United States from the people of France as a universal visual representation of freedom and democracy. In addition to this, the statue is used to welcome people to the United States. It is among the highly anticipated tourist attraction sites foreigners hope to see upon arrival.
I distinctively remember when I resumed at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) anticipating on touring the statue of liberty. In the early twentieth century immigrants saw this majestic figure as an imitation to a new life. Furthermore, in her uplifted arm they read a welcome message that says “This vast republic wants me!” Finally, the statue of liberty represents freedom and also the gathering of immigrants into one inclusive nation.
Folksonomy is the collaborative tagging or cataloging of different websites. These sites can be articles, photos, products and/or bookmarks. It became popular in 2004 and is a characteristic of web 2.0. Collective tagging, tagging, social tagging, social indexing, and collaborative tagging all have the same meaning as folksonomy. Folksonomy can be done online using websites like “delicious” or offline using “library records”. The word folksonomy is derived from folk meaning done by people and taxonomy meaning classification of items or groups.
Although I’m still exploring these kinds of social tagging websites I’ve come across the following:
ADVANTAGES: 1. An easy way to classify web content
2. A cheap method to classify web content
3. Has the capability to adapt to the users style
4. Provides additional keywords to help search engines
5. Provides additional navigation on your site; for instance index referencing – helps users find related post content
DISADVANTAGES:
1. Some tags may exit with a different meaning (polisemy)
2. Some tags may exit with similar meanings (synonyms)
3. Language barrier
4. Anti-spam measure is high
5. Acronyms and Abbreviations
Depending on how one uses social bookmarking sites, I can see it as a democratic taxonomy that allows the community to peer review the content of the web. However, this depends just like a democratic system on how effective the community participates. For example, the more people that use social bookmarking sites (by tagging information) the more powerful the tool becomes.
On the other hand, I can also see it as a disorganized collection of personal preferences, simply because of a no hierarchical system. Hierarchy is good to avoid the creation of overlapping content, for instance multiple tags of “usability” allows for much of the subtlety but few of the restrictions of hierarchy.
Bookmarks I selected be it websites, blogs and/or articles are in relation to topics centered on Elements of Visual Design. These bookmarks include web design, web 2.0, usability, typography, proposals, and technical writing. As stated in my first blog post the essence of this blog is to educate myself on technical communication. For instance, some of the sites I bookmarked narrates and teaches users on web designs. Take for instance this site everybodygoto , it helps give pointers on elements you should take into consideration when designing a website. I also, tagged typography sites, because the need to communicate your message is more important than the actual message itself. In essence, the need to use a correct type is another important feature whether creating a website, writing a blog or constructing a proposal. This brings me to my next point, proposal writing which is also included as part of my bookmarks. I included a very helpful guide to assist anyone in writing a proposal. Finally, another area I focused on was on technical writing which is a most have skills, needed in technical communication. These technical writing blog and sites explains how reader’s eyes navigate through your page. It therefore explains helpful tips to present written information.
Social bookmarking is beneficial to students and professionals in more ways than one. Students can use social bookmarking as tool to find tags related to their subject, research or course topics quickly. This not only enables the collaboration of like-minds but is a powerful source that demonstrates the power of sharing. In addition to this, students from around the world can share their bookmark collections with other students and professors. This in turn can help students collaborate on research, projects and/or assignments. Also, this can be dynamic tool by enabling students to become active learners. Professionally, social bookmarking sites in my opinion scream out efficiency. This networking site allows the sharing and meeting of professional contacts by commercially developing tags for ease.
Web 2.0 can mean anything. The story about web 2.0 dates back to Tim O’Reilly and Medialive International’s brainstorming session in 2004. The conference resulted to define web 2.0 to mean the web as a platform. Of which I felt translated to the gist of web based applications. Web 2.0 suddenly changed its meaning by the second conference to mean something about democracy.
The meaning of Web 2.0 has evolved with time, not placing a clear-cut definition to the term. Therefore, I’ll define web 2.0 as the most powerful web based application yet. This can also be seen as the ever changing web application platform from the initial document delivery system. Web 2.0 is evolving into a more collaborative and personal means of communication to easily be able to receive data at ones fingertips. With the talk of web 3.0, web 2.0 will be precedent like web 1.0. This is where core web applications that were in existence during the era of web 1.0 are now a thing of the past. Listed below are web 1.0 applications versus 2.0:
Netscape vs. Firefox
Encantra vs. Wikipedia
AltaVista vs. Google
Mapquest vs. Google Maps
Geocities vs. Blogger
The question now is that, what differentiates the above web 2.0 applications in comparison to its precedent? Could it be …
Open Data
Today data and information are readily available to the public. Also, users (like you and l) are creating ideas and publishing it for everyone to access. This I’d like to call user created ideas, where users not only stipulate their ideas but own their ideas and data.
Architecture of Participation
The infrastructure of the web 2.0 application is built in a way that provides a service (infoware) to users and not a product (software). This gives users a sense of ownership in a community, where everything is built so easily that customer support is self service. This in turn will encourage users to contribute ideas by providing reviews and comments, which is a determining factor in any growing business.
Rich User Experience
Unlike the pioneer web 1.0, web 2.0 is continually becoming pleasurable to work with. The social networks available are easy to use, contain rich user interface but most importantly function like a traditional application.
Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, twitter and hi5 just to mention a few are aspects of web 2.0 that really interest me. In my definition above I mentioned that “web 2.0 is an ever changing web based application”, the following example will further explain my definition. Take for instance Facebook, which initially started as a social networking site directed to young adults for friends and family, long lost friends/family and the likes. This site eventually started escalating into something more each day. A few years back, Facebook added the instant messaging tool to their site to communicate directly with friends online. Also, over the years they have offered an array of services to individuals, businesses and students which have attracted a higher demographic rate. Among the many tools and services Facebook offers it is the ability for students to search for jobs and apply to colleges. Companies advertise not only products and services, but job openings on Facebook given students the opportunity to apply. Students also have the flexibility to sell and purchase goods from friends and others. The list goes on with Facebook, and because of the applications and what-not that they integrate into their website I’ve lost track of them. These social networking websites have really defined what I believe web 2.0 is an ever growing and changing society. I’m positive that by the end of next year Facebook will most likely integrate phone calls via the internet. There is always more to come with these social networking sites that enhance the means of communication.
I believe at the moment we are in a transition stage, we are moving steadily past through web 2.0. I would like to look at Web 2.0 as some sort of transition technological period, as a means of getting to our destination – Web 3.0. The reason for the above statement is because according to research web 3.0 unlike web 2.0 will be a much more open web application. In other words, web 3.0 I believe will be a more intelligent web application, with natural language processing and machine based learning and reasoning. Whereas, web 2.0 is still mostly about social networking and mass collaboration. So we are still at a leap to web 3.0 but nonetheless coming closer each day to something amazing.
As far as web 3.0 goes I’ve head about the following acronyms RAIM (Rich Anywhere Interface App) or WORAG (Write Once Run Anywhere GUIs). Take a look at Nova Spivack’s Twine (http://www.twine.com/), its goal is to organize, share and discover information of like minded individuals. Apparently they are the first to use web 3.0 technologies – using semantic technologies powered by semantic understanding. Basically twine is an example of how web 3.0 will work, using the social elements of web 2.0 with user specific Semantic web tools. In summary, I believe web 3.0 will be anything that comes after web 2.0.
I believe Tim O’Reilly latest definition of web 2.0 is “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called "harnessing collective intelligence."). Actually this definition was in response to commentators post on his topic - Web 3.0? Maybe when we get there.
I believe that the commercial use of web 2.0 tools is not significantly different from the use in education and by individuals. First and foremost, the essence of web 2.0 tools I believe is to communicate a message better, most often in real time. I believe that is the ultimate use of web tools; be it used commercially or otherwise the need to communicate a message is key. However, the way the message is conveyed using these web tools vary significantly. Take for instance, the way a message is conveyed to a student by a teacher using a web tool – these educational tools used integrate technology into the classroom.On the other hand, web tools used commercially are centered upon attracting customers to their website for business purpose.
